My Costar is a father

It feels like an entire lifetime has passed between the first time Xin Hulei tasted his tears and now.

Yao Shen can scarcely believe he's still the same person.

Perhaps in all the ways that count he isn't, not anymore.

He rubs his eyes with the back of his wrist, drying them off.

"Don't do that," Yao Shen says, swallowing around the knot in his throat. "I can't handle it."

Xin Hulei steps closer to him. Yao Shen retreats a few paces until the back of his knees hit the bed frame.

"Do what?"

Overly conscious of the sound of his own heartbeat, Yao Shen lowers his eyes. "You know how I feel about you..."

"Do I?" Xin Hulei asks, the furrow between his eyebrows growing deeper. "Two lifetimes of entanglement, and I have no idea how you feel about me."

Xin Hulei draws nearer, eventually Yao Shen has nowhere else to retreat to. He loses his balance and falls down on the bed in an inelegant sprawl.

Xin Hulei's nostril's flare.